THE

UNITED STATES MAGAZINE

AND

DEMOCRATIC REVIEW.

Vol. 1. No. 4.

COTTON,

AND ITS CONNECTION WITH THE CURRENCY QUESTION.

OUR most important national interest, of a physical nature, is, undeniably, our cotton culture. This is the great staple on which our vast foreign commerce mainly depends. This affords the rich mine from which we draw the means of paying for the enormous quantity of the productions of foreign art now necessary to the daily comfort of all classes of our population. If the English spinningjenny is the sceptre with which the Island Queen rules the world, with an undisputed sway of commercial ascendency, the American saw-gin is an instrument of power, upon which the other is itself almost wholly dependent for its ability to maintain that magnificent dominion. We could not, therefore, more usefully fill a portion of our pages, than by devoting them to the subject denoted by the above title; of the different points of view in which it presents itself, its financial importance, as connected with the currency, induces us to direct our attention to that branch of the subject, in particular, in this article, the interesting topics of the history of its culture and manufacture, both in our own and in other countries, being reserved for future numbers.

Previously to the peace by which our national independence was established, no cotton was produced within the present limits of the United States. It can hardly be said to have been cultivated, excepting perhaps as a rare exotic, before the adoption of the Federal Constitution. Its subsequent history may safely be pointed to, as exhibiting a signal instance of the influence of free, popular institutions, such as were created by that imperishable instrument, to develope the natural resources of a country.

At this day, we can hardly appreciate the vast revolution which the introduction of this staple has effected in our commercial rela

LETTER of the Secretary of the Treasury transmitting tables and notes on the cultivation, manufacture and foreign trade of cotton. Document of House of Repre sentatives, No. 146, 1st session, 24th Congress.

VOL. I. NO. IV.

tions. Powerful as its influence is now known to have become, its effect in this particular, to be fully understood, should be contrasted with our situation at the close of the Revolution. For a series of years, the pecuniary condition of the United States was deplorable in the extreme. No one of the present generation can have made himself familiar with the public and domestic affairs of that period, without being painfully affected with the strong evidences of general poverty which prevailed. Some of the fairest and most productive sections of the Union had been totally exhausted by the ravages incident to war. The citizens of those sections, which had not been overrun with ruthless bands of foreign mercenaries, had patriotically expended their resources in the public defence. In most of our towns and cities, the extensive mercantile establishments, which flourished before the war, had been broken up. A scene of ruin and desolation almost universal was exhibited, arising from the baleful effects of a depreciated paper currency, and the destruction of property incident to a state of domestic hostility of seven years' duration.

With peace came strong temptations to indulgence in the luxuries and fashions of Europe, from the example of which our own social habits had been generally formed. Instead of weaning our countrymen from their expensive tastes, the long compulsory abstinence they had undergone, had greatly increased their relish for such gratifications. Our productions, which could be exported in payment for foreign commodities, possessed at that time a comparatively trifling value. The inevitable consequence was, that a large proportion of the circulating medium, that was intrinsically valuable, was remitted abroad, to meet the balances due to foreign merchants. Indebtedness and embarrassment, approaching to desperation, pervaded the community, to such an extent that in several sections of the United States, popular tumults arose, and, in some instances, were carried to the extent of an organized resistance to the laws. The enemies of our free institutions, both at home and abroad, boldly and confidently anticipated a speedy overthrow of the experiment of the people of the United States in the art of self government.

These trying scenes were met by the men who, in the midst of innumerable privations and disasters, had withstood unshaken both the arms and the intrigues of the most powerful nation on earth. Despising all temporary expedients, and-with a wisdom which it would be well that their successors had always imitated-denouncing all measures of temporary relief which might involve the country in more formidable subsequent difficulties, they resolutely adhered to those high principles in which alone were to be found the safest protection for their true and permanent interests. The burthen of debt which pressed so heavily upon all classes was gradually reduced by laborious industry and careful frugality. Confidence

eventually became restored by this natural and healthy mode; and the earnest attention of the whole people was directed to the developement of the resources of our extensive territory.

The production of cotton in the southern and south-western States, may be fairly considered to have exercised a more important agency than any other single circumstance in retrieving the credit of the country both at home and abroad. By furnishing a staple commodity of general necessity to a great amount, this cultivation has enabled our citizens, in all sections of the United States, to follow their gainful commerce without being constantly exposed to the disturbing influence of the enormous sacrifices upon their remittance to foreign nations, to which they were before subjected. In connection with our tobacco, fish, lumber, rice, and bread-stuffs, cotton, has mainly enabled us to pay for the articles of necessity as well as luxuries, which we have so largely imported from England, France, and other countries. It has accordingly become one of the principal sources of the wealth of our citizens, greatly advantageous even to the States which do not produce it. Our cotton crops have in fact placed Europe in a state of greater dependence upon us than we are upon Europe, inasmuch as this commodity is essential, not only to the prosperity, but to the very existence of a great portion of its manufacturing population. In this point of view the production of cotton in the United States may be regarded as the most important element of our actual commercial independence.

The precise circumstances under which this cultivation began in the southern States, the time when, and place where, it obtained first a permanent footing, are involved in much obscurity. It doubtless commenced upon so small a scale as to have attracted little general attention. South Carolina appears to be entitled to the credit of its first introduction, as early as 1785 or 1786; though it was immediately communicated to the adjoining State of Georgia, where it was produced at the earlier stages of its cultivation, in the largest quantity. The great obstacle to its extension was the infinite trouble and delay with which the separation of the fibre from its seed was attended. The species of cotton first introduced, known in commerce by the name of upland, adheres to every part of its seed with great tenacity. Among the early cultivators, the fibre was usually separated from the seed by the hands of the laborers. A pound of clean cotton was the usual task for the day's work of a female. The first planter who raised cotton upon a large scale, as it was then called, was Mr. Teake, of Savannah. In 1788 his crop was 5000 lbs. in the seed This would make about 1200 lbs. of clean cotton by the present mode of ginning. The difficulty which he experienced in procuring this crop to be cleaned was so great, that he proposed to his correspondent in the north to send it to him in the seed, under the belief that the persons by whom it was manu

factured would devise some more convenient and economical mode of preparing it for carding, than was in the power of the planter. It was found, however, that cotton in the seed was an unsaleable article among the manufacturers. Rollers and the bowstring were subsequently introduced, to facilitate the separation from the seed, and continued in use until the saw-gin was invented; but the process with their assistance was exceedingly tedious and expensive. After they had been universally abandoned, upland cotton was known for many years in the English market as "Bowed Georgia.” In fact it is sometimes quoted by that name in the prices-current of the present day-more than forty years since the instrument from which it was originally called has been entirely out of use.

In 1793, the difficulty which had so long been the principle obstacle to the extensive and profitable cultivation of upland cotton, was effectually obviated by a young man from Massachusetts who had been engaged to go to Georgia in the capacity of a family tutor. Soon after his arrival in that State he was apprised of the great inconveniences to which growers of cotton were subjected in preparing it for market. With the characteristic enterprise of his origin, and a prophetic perception of its incalculable national importance, he immediately racked his invention for the contrivance of a remedy. The saw-gin was not, as has been the case with so many of the most valuable discoveries, the offspring of a lucky accident, but was the result of the systematic application of earnest thought and powerful mechanical genius. When it was originally put in motion it was precisely identical in principle and operation with those now employed throughout the southern and south-western States. For the sake of the credit of those States which have derived almost incalculable wealth from his simple and ingenious invention, we wish it was in our power to say that a fit reward had been bestowed upon ELI WHITNEY!

The commencement of the cultivation of sea-island cotton is more clearly ascertained. It was first grown upon Lapeto Island, on the coast of Georgia, in 1790, from Pernambuco seed. This description of cotton greatly exceeds all other kinds, both in fineness and length of fibre. For the highest and most expensive manufacture, this species of cotton is indispensable, and only coming to perfection upon the islands, and near the coast of the Atlantic, the limited quantity produced maintains its comparatively high price in the market. In preparing sea-island cotton, the saw-gin is not generrally employed, as it breaks the long silky fibre which is one element of its peculiar value. This fibre does not cling so strongly to the seed as that of the upland, but adheres principally at the ends. They may, therefore, be separated by rollers with much greater facility, though the process is exceedingly slow when compared with the operation of the saw-gin. This increased labor is compen

sated by its enhanced price, which, for the best quality, is usually, in the English market, three or four times greater than that of upland. No part of the world produces cotton of equal excellence. The amount raised has been nearly stationary for the last thirty years, from the limited extent of territory upon which it can be grown.

The admirable report of Mr. Woodbury, on this subject, to the last Congress at its first session, gives, in a succinct form, the best data any where to be found relative to the progress and extent of the cultivation of cotton in the United States. It furnishes, indeed, the quantity produced, as well as manufactured, in every part of the world, at different stated periods. We have been struck in examining this document, with the vast amount of important information on this subject, compressed within the compass of less than a hundred and twenty pages. It seems that all the publications in the European languages, as well as those of our own country, which refer either to the production or the manufacture of cotton, have been diligently consulted and brought together. None but such as have been accustomed to such researches, can appreciate the labor necessary to collect such a mass of facts, from detached sources, and present them to view in a condensed and tangible form. That it should have been done, and so well done, by an individual holding a public station which requires such laborious and unremitting attention, may appear wonderful to those unacquainted with the range of information, and the habits of industry, for which Mr. Woodbury is distinguished.

From that invaluable collection of the leading statistics of our subjects, we derive the following statements, to show the remarkable fact of the wonderful increase of its production, within the period of less than half a century. As the quantity consumed in this country at various periods appear to be wholly a matter of estimate and opinion, we take the account of exports from the United States, which are clearly ascertained, as the means of comparing the relative amounts produced.

The quantity exported in 1790, was 400,000 lbs. In 1791, 200,000 lbs. and in 1792, 150,000 lbs. Its diminution, during the two last named years, furnishing, even in the absence of all other testimony the most conclusive evidence of the difficulty of preparing the commodity for market, to which we have adverted.

In 1795, after the saw-gin had begun to operate to a considerable extent, the export was 6,250,000 lbs. From this period the expor tation has gradually increased to its present extent-being in 1835, the last year stated by Mr. Woodbury, 336,500,000 lbs. From other authentic sources we have ascertained that the export of 1836 was upwards of four hundred and twenty-three millions of pounds. The whole of the exportation of cotton from the United States during the three first years before stated would hardly suffice for the cargo of